Most farmers have more than one crop and a good number of the avo farmers we’ve interviewed, especially ‘up north’, were primarily avo farmers when I interviewed them on macadamias. So, I was in no small hurry to get back there when we changed crops to focus on avos.
So, just over 3 and a half years later, we revisit JAFF 11. https://www.tropicalbytes.co.za/2020-10-jaff-11/ And now we have a quandary … what do we number a JAFF who’s already been numbered but it’s another crop? JAFF 11.Avo is looking right.
The first time I visited, it started off with quite a crowd around a large boardroom table; the head of the family and his younger brother, the head of the nursery, and Dr Elsje Joubert who had put me in touch with this operation as a valuable TropicalBytes resource. This time it was just me and ‘the younger brother’ who has graduated into Head of Farming operations as his ‘ouboet’ moves closer to retirement. What hasn’t changed is the stature of this business; it’s still a leader in every respect and I’m humbled and grateful to be able to share what they know about farming avos.
BUT FIRST, A QUICK MAC CATCH UP
The first item on my catch-up list was Takalane; the cultivar JAFF has been propagating on this farm for many years now (get the full review in his previous story). I couldn’t wait to hear whether it was going to be our next homegrown cultivar. “We’ve been topworking Takalane into other trees and we have a few young orchards (pre-production) and will add another 5 to 7 hectares of Takalane this year but …” frowns JAFF, “for the last 3 seasons macs, here in Levubu, have been terrible.”
Takalane on 344 orchard. JAFF mentioned, on our last visit, that he doesn’t recommend grafting as low as they did in this orchard (you can see that the old trees were cut down to ground level and Takalane was grafted onto that) – he re-emphasises this again as we drive by the Takalane orchard. JAFF also says that, as he now continues to top-work Takalane into orchards, he leaves a branch of the “old” cultivar, “just in case there’s any substance to the value of cross-pollination in macs,” he adds with a smile.
Takalane orchard
A closer look at a Takalane
JAFF goes on to explain just how terrible the macs have been, “The average yield is 1,6t/ha in Levubu compared to an industry benchmark of 2,6t/ha.” JAFF is using a recognised and reliable farmer-supported App to get these figures. “At this yield and with the current prices, we are suffering losses on the macs.”
I feel like a goldfish blowing bubbles; not entirely sure how to defend my beloved macs. JAFF too, is a bit lost, “None of us are sure what to do as this is an area-wide challenge but no one can identify exactly what it is. It has to be climatic because all the Levubu farmers are producing similarly.” JAFF adds that they’ve cut back on some activities this season based on the last two years’ results. JAFF laughs at my crestfallen face, “My heart is just not into macs anymore – we are far more focussed on the avos. We’ve just upgraded our pack house and are now fully vertically integrated with the nursery, orchards and pack house.” Good thing I’m here for an avo story then!
The decline in macadamia yields across the whole Levubu area is reflected in this graph of one of JAFF’s Beaumont orchards – historically a higher-yielding cultivar in this area. 2019 seemed to be an anomaly across the entire industry, country-wide – perhaps a pre-apology for what was to hit in 2020?
JAFF scrolls through all the possibilities and nothing, besides climate, or maybe thrips, seems to be a likely culprit because all the farmers (good, bad and ugly ) are producing similarly. The best farmers get a maximum of 400kgs/ha more than the others.
On the upside, JAFF reports that thrips is down this year; he believes it’s because of the winter rain. The avos, especially those in close proximity to the macs, suffer damage from the thrips (which only makes JAFF like the macs less). Biological controls are possible in avos but, in the macs, they can’t use mites because the stink bugs need to be sprayed.
Typically me, I ‘stuck my head in the sand’ and asked how the soil health in the macs is. JAFF replied that they’ve been doing some microbial supplementation (as well as slashing rather than poisoning the weeds and leaving all prunings in the orchards) but he’s stopped the microbes as he didn’t see a return on the investment. Interestingly, this supplementation strategy DID show results in the guavas. Remember the guava wilt disease? There’s a field that JAFF has replanted 3 times already – he only seems to get 3 to 4 years out of them before they die off. But, this last lot, that had microbes added, got to 6 – 7 years!! Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, he’s had to stop the microbe programme and the trees are now dying. “But, when cash flow allows, I definitely want to try that again,” adds JAFF, “and this time I’ll have a control orchard to compare with so I can confirm that it’s the microbes making a difference.”
OKAY, NOW AVOS
| FARM CONTEXT | |
| Date of visit | 14 September 2022 |
| Area | Levubu, Limpopo |
| Soils | Whole variety, from deep, rich reds (35% clay) to Glen Rosas and sandy, poor, rocky patches. |
| Rainfall | Av: 800 – 900mm annually |
| Altitude | 600 – 700m |
| Distance from the coast | About 850kms as the crow flies |
| Temperature range | Av high: 40°C, Av low: 12°C. Typography means that temperatures vary vastly across the farms – some have frost at times and some can get way hotter than 40°C |
| Varieties | Fuerte, Hass, Lamb Hass, Maluma Hass |
| Hectares under avos | Total: 73,5 hectares. (Fuerte: 25,5 | Maluma: 11 | Hass: 24 | Lamb Hass: 13) |
| Other crops | 70 hectares macs. 30 Guavas. |
Let’s just get the ugly stuff out of the way upfront! JAFF literally holds his head as he says, “And then there’s a year like this, for avos! It’s been awful. Our fruit was stuck in the harbour for 10 days. And even the local market was a disaster because everyone flooded that with fruit that would ordinarily have been exported.”
And, when JAFF continues into the infrastructure woes faced by the area, I am ready for some hard tack in my coffee. “We’re facing substantial electricity challenges in this area,” explains JAFF, “a few months back the farmers came together to clear the electricity lines. There had been no maintenance for ages and it took excavators and TLBs to remove the growth and bush causing damage to the lines. This has helped but, whenever it rains, the power still fails. “All the farms in our business have generators and we are slowly moving over to solar power,” says JAFF. The upside (yes, I am a hopeless optimist) is that the new solar power installation company within this farming group is thriving!
Coffee shot dispensed, we get into the farming details …
CULTIVARS
JAFF sticks to 4 cultivars with Fuerte being the main one. Traditionally, their Fuertes were ready early and they were the first ones to put export quality fruit on the local market with direct sales. But lately, the dynamic has changed – they’re no longer alone in the early season and the whole local market is becoming rather crowded which has forced them to explore other markets to remain profitable. They’ve done this with Hass into the export market and all new avo plantings are now Hass.
The Maluma and Lamb Hass cultivars extend the season nicely. Lamb Hass, traditionally picked in 2nd week of August but, with markets the way they are now, they’ve only started picking 2nd week in Sept. This delay means that they start to pick up quality risks (as well as theft risks) so they’ll be selling these late pickings locally.
JAFFs operation is also looking for new, early cultivars (even if they’re unknowns) to find a new gap in the market. So, they watch the trees for early bearing and work with them to develop something that will provide early season fruit. Jan / early Feb is a gap. Areas that seem to be producing early fruit now are Mozambique, Tanzania & Tzaneen. Tzaneen used to come into the market 2 to 3 weeks after JAFF. “Climate changes affect everything in ways we are yet to understand,” shrugs JAFF.
MANAGING YIELD BY LOAD SHEDDING
As a long-term average, JAFF is happy with 14 tonnes per hectare. Last season was good; with some orchards getting between 18 and 22 t/ha. But JAFF doesn’t get excited about volume, “This region struggles with smaller fruit, especially if there’s a lot of fruit on the tree so 14t on Hass is a good yield because then the fruit will be a good size. Upwards of 14t/ha generally means your fruit is getting smaller.” JAFF explains that medium sized fruit (count 16/18/20/22*) gets the best prices whereas small fruit prices are poor. For this reason JAFF is very intentional about managing the load his trees are carrying and trades quantity for size by shaving flowers off the trees with the all-cut if it looks like it’s going to be too much. Great news for our illustrations, we are having one of those years right now (when I was there) so were able to get some great pics.
*For those who don’t know, this is the number of avos that can fit into a 4kg box, i.e.: count 22 is therefore smaller fruit than count 16.
NB: This practice of removing flowers is reserved for the Hass varieties. JAFF tried it once on Fuerte; but then they got a cold spell that year which removed the balance of the flowers. That was the last time he tried it on any other cultivar.
The all-cut has been down one side of this row (the right, for anyone unsure) to remove excess flowering.
Despite clear evidence of the all-cut having been through here, there is still profuse flowering. JAFF will come back and remove all these branches that were ‘tipped’, right back to the main stem so as to reduce the ‘carpet effect’ – a typical problem resulting from all-cut pruning.
The evidence of recent flower removal in this orchard.
Purposely reducing tonnage is a new concept for me but, for JAFF, it’s simple, “I could get more tonnage but what’s the point if I can’t sell it?” So, in his normal pruning circuits he assesses the flower load. If it’s too heavy then he will start on the warm side of the tree, at the top, where sunburn risk is high, and remove those flowers. The ideal outcome for the tree overall is a balance between flowers, leaves and new flush. After a few years of following this flower load-shedding () practice JAFF says the Hass orchards yield consistently with no more alternate bearing issues.
JAFF explains that excessive flowering on the Fuertes is not as problematic as it is on the Hass varieties. He also averages 14 t/ha on them, consistently, which is above average. (Source BI: Benchmark for green skins (Fuerte) for last 3 years is 10,26 t/ha)
An example of a tree that is flowering too heavily for its own good. JAFF has pruned it back (note the fresh cuts) to both reduce the flower load and to shape the tree. It is also getting some phosphorous via injections.
CLONAL NURSERY
I popped my head in here the last time I visited and (only just) managed to resist the curiosity pull to learn more about the clonal avo trees. Well – no holding back this time! And now my intrigue was piqued even more … Michael and I recently tried grafting on his macs; it ended with more blood than success … so I now know that the “ag – grafting is easy” I’ve been hearing is not 100% true!
JAFF says the nursery they started purely because “the 4 to 6 year wait for new avo trees was unacceptable” continues to thrive and they’ve recently ‘upped the game’ even more, in terms of processes and systems, with the aim of increasing productivity in this division. “Seeds are expensive and it takes 2 years to make a clonal tree,” explains JAFF, “so we have intensified the focus and now monitor each process individually, rather than just the outcome.” This way, shortfalls at the end are no longer a surprise and they can identify where the challenges were.
JAFF says that they have limited space in the nursery and can only produce 15000 clonal avos per year. They do seedlings as well – also about 15000/year. Interestingly, many up and coming Venda farmers prefer seedlings because it’s a quicker process. Edranol root stock is most often used for seedlings but they also use West Indies, imported from Tanzania. When it comes to clonals, they use Reed or Ryan to start and then clone with Duke 7, Bounty or Dusa.
JAFF shares a few tips on assessing nursery plants; “Look for white healthy roots, a good, strong, straight graft point, healthy leaves, and an overall height of between 1 and 1,2m.” He adds that you should also make sure that the stem of the tree is not too thick – this is an indicator of how long it’s been in the bag. A thick stem, anything over about 15mm in diameter, means that that tree has been in the nursery for too long and that means that it might have had (or has) issues. Some nurseries use growth regulators on their nursery plants; to control regrowth if they can’t move them out.
We walked the process of developing a clonal avo (and even have two videos to share!) …
First, the seeds are germinated (so it’s not done on the windowsill with toothpicks over a glass jam jar!? )
Then the clonal root stock material is grafted on to the seedling.
As the bud breaks the grafted material it is placed in a dark room to develop further.
Not sure who discovered this or why they resorted to chlorophyll theft but, apparently, the root stock material won’t grow roots if it has chlorophyll in it. And as I re-read that, I see the logic … roots don’t have chlorophyll so, if you want to generate roots, an absence of chlorophyll would be a step in the right direction! So, it is placed in this climatically controlled dark room to do it’s ghost thing.
This farm has their own root stock blocks but also gets some in from reliable sources if necessary. Managing a budwood block is a specialist affair (regardless of whether it’s for roots or bearing wood); it’s pruning needs to discourage flowering so that budwood is available permanently. This year the farm’s ‘normal’ pruning team went through the root stock block with their standard pruning practices (by mistake) and the result was a very unhappy nurseryman – ah, the challenges! And, if you still think running a nursery is easy, every budwood tree must be indexed for sunblotch before it can be considered as a parent.
Once the root stock has grown, they come out of the dark room, and two small nicks are made about halfway up the stem. Rooting hormone is dribbled into these wounds. Then the wire support is inserted and the new pot placed into that. It is then filled with growing medium and voila! All caught nicely in this video below:
After being prepared to root, the young plants are put out into the nursery to develop those clonal roots.
After about 6 to 8 weeks their new roots have grown and they’re ready for the umbilical cord to be cut.
They are then planted into bigger bags as brand-new clonal root stock avos. The seeds can be used again, to host another plant.
These successful clonal trees are ready for their ‘big girl brooks’ – a bigger bag.
JAFF says that as far as he knows Andre Ernst developed this method of propagating avos. He was from Allesbeste nursery in Tzaneen but, sadly, was a victim of Covid in those horrific years. It is now also used by the rest of the world. Another awesome example of South Africa being at the forefront of pioneering in agriculture.
These are West Indies root stock seedlings. Some local growers prefer seedlings to clonal root stocks, and they specify West Indies as the seedling.
Lamb Hass on West Indies seedlings
ORCHARD PREPARATION
On the whole, JAFF keeps the ripping to, what he sees as, functional areas only; the rows. No cross-ripping. The excavator will rip ‘under the ridge’ as well as loosening the soil to make the ridge.
JAFF says he’s learnt, the hard way, not to plant without ridging. In fact, they’ve bought an excavator for that purpose. I asked about the bulldozers I often see doing this job … “Bulldozers can compact ridges a little too much as they place layer upon layer as the ridges are built up,” says Jaff, “I prefer the way excavators just pile loose soil on top, although, bulldozers are faster and cheaper.” At the end of the day, JAFF chose an excavator because it is also more versatile across other farm chores like debushing. “And I can rent it out quite easily when I’m not using it,” adds JAFF. JAFF advises that ridges are wide, about 1,5 to 2m across with a 2,5m base.
Besides ridging, JAFF says that drainage is equally important and must be effective.
When it comes to spacing, JAFF tweaks it depending on the cultivar going in; Fuertes need space so he plants these at 8/9m x 5m, Hass is not as spread so he can get away with 8m x 5m here. Maluma & Lamb Hass are smaller trees that don’t spread as much and they will be fine as close as 7m x 4/3,5m.
JAFF warns not to plant too deep, “Remember that the tree will settle so allow for that by planting a little above the soil line, like about 3cm.” He goes on to say that they then cut the bottom of the bag off and pull the remaining sleeve over the top of the tree when the tree is in the hole. Once it’s ‘tucked in’, stake the young tree remembering to place this stake outside the root zone so as to not damage any roots.
As sunscreen, JAFF paints the warm side of the stem only. And then it’s all about hydration.
NEAR AND FAR
JAFF has learnt (why’s it always the hard way? ) that it’s really important to take a microscopic look at your soil but, sometimes, perspective and insight is best gained by taking a step (or a few kilometres) back …
There’s a particular ‘square’ on a farm they own that has something odd going on … as it happens, they didn’t do extensive land preparation in this whole area but, despite this, most of the trees are doing fine, except for this jolly square!
He has since gone back to look on Google Earth and seen that it has been a long-standing issue. There were bananas here before and these also struggled (the farm was neglected when they bought it so JAFF assumed the banana issue was management related). The borders of the troubled zone are quite clear. JAFF says that, if he had done thorough research on this new farm before planting, including a check on Google Earth, he would have picked up the issue and paid more attention to land prep in the affected area (he suspects that the issue is related to compaction) thereby avoiding the expense he incurred as a result. They had to start again in these orchards – an incredibly expensive exercise. So, JAFF suggests that you all have a look at Google Earth to see if you can identify any soil issues ‘from a distance’ before making any micro-moves …
I didn’t know you could see historical images on Google Earth so I checked and … it seems you can!
Since he redid the land prep (thoroughly this time) and the orchard is thriving. (He hadn’t ridged previously – just ripped with a bulldozer)
The line where the soil changed was so definite – the trees on the left were doing fine – the trees on the right weren’t. But JAFF decided that instead of replanting everything, he’d just do a little experiment with a couple of rows. Remember JAFF 31’s after-the-fact ridging? That’s what this JAFF decided to test with a couple rows. (You’ll notice the ones on the left are not ridged) JAFF reports that the ridging (afterwards) has indeed helped.
Another straight line between where the orchards are on track and where they just didn’t get any traction. Because of the straight lines, JAFF is convinced it’s a human issue – one that he could easily have picked up off Google Earth – but it’s been a learning; one that he’s passing on to our readers.
Replanted orchards – now Maluma Hass
Over achievers. Productive little soldiers – Maluma Hass
Evidence that flowers have been removed from here too – but see how many remain! JAFF hopes Nature will help to regulate the load further without damage being done to next year’s yield.
ROW DIRECTION
Most of JAFF’s orchards are planted east-west which is contrary to the recommended north-south layout. JAFF thinks that sunlight is actually maximised by planting east-west, albeit on one side of the tree. But, it’s interesting to note the way the tree responds to the sunlight; The north-facing side of the row will flower and set 2 to 3 weeks before the south-facing side.
Flowering (on the left) and set (on the right) – same tree. JAFF also points out how much more new, bright green flush the sunny side has. He has already done a uniconazole spray on the “shady” side to control vegetative growth so that fruit shape and size is optimised.
Just as I was wondering about how this complicates harvesting, JAFF adds that the fruit all matures at the same time with the “slow” side catching up in time for harvest. They did a moisture test on the Fuerte fruit, with this in mind, and can confirm that, by mid-Feb, all the fruit on the whole tree was at the same stage of maturity.
The next obvious question was whether JAFF recommends north-south planting as a standard … he says they’ve asked the same question; “so we looked at the best Fuerte orchard and the best Hass orchard and saw that both were planted east-west. We then raised the topic with other growers, ones who’s insight we value …” Many hours of discussions led to the conclusion that east-west planting might just be better as more of the tree is exposed to the full sun all day, than north-south planted orchards. There are, of course, implications like thrips management; JAFF has to come back through these orchards twice (3 weeks apart) in order to protect the young fruit rather than once, if they were all flowering at the same time. This does increase costs.
Bottom line is that JAFF would preferably plant east-west unless there was a significant thrips problem, in which case he would consider north-south so that management was simplified and spray costs reduced. 5 to 6 years ago they never had the thrips problem they have now.
HAMBA KAHLE
While they were investigating which orchards were the best producing; they found that, with Fuerte, it was a 40-year-old orchard on Edranol root stock. They realised that it was actually an orchard that they’d marked to be removed when they were buying the farm. But, on ‘the’ day, the bulldozer broke down so the trees received a stay of execution and were instead cut back, injected and mulched. And, today, it is the top producing orchard!! We laughed that the trees had heard JAFF and upped their game, at which point he started threatening all his macadamias loudly!! I hope to see the results of this “chat” next time I visit.
IRRIGATION
All the irrigation here is micro sprinklers. JAFF explains that they were using drip for some of the avos but he really struggled with yield and is therefore changing back to micros. The macs are the same. “Since changing back, we’ve realised a definite increase in yield,” confirms JAFF. This has to be one of the first times I’ve ever heard of someone reverting to micros and just have to dig a little deeper … “I don’t know,” he says honestly, “perhaps I didn’t manage the drip correctly.” All he can confirm is that overall tree health improved with the change. He has, in retrospect, wondered whether he was applying too little through the drippers i.e.: not coming back soon enough with the next cycle.
Although this area has an established series of canals, the supply is too unreliable to farm with. JAFF uses boreholes across most of the farms and one farm has a river. Depending on the season and rainfall, the volumes applied to the avos vary but generally they start the season with a long, 4 to 5 hour soaking and then come back 2 to 3 times per week with 2 hours each time. Effectively each tree gets about 150 litres, 3 times per week. This is vastly less than he was applying since he started to pay a little more attention to the impact of water on tree health. He compared two macadamia blocks; one dryland and one under irrigation. The same cultivar. They deliver exactly the same yields! JAFF laughs; “But they’re both on really good soils, a little way up the mountain. I don’t think you’d get the same results across poorer soils.” But, he has been cutting back on irrigation when the soils are better – production has maintained and phytophthora has reduced in these blocks! It’s been a journey of learning exactly how far to turn the taps …
JAFF irrigates all year round, depending on rainfall, but after harvest (for Fuertes this is end March) he cuts back to a small top up once per fortnight. The normal irrigation schedule resumes as soon as the flowers start to emerge.
A happy ladybird, enjoying the raindrops on these (male-phase) flowers.
PRUNING
This is a headache area for JAFF; largely due to a team that seems to be unproductive. The issue was highlighted during a Study Group review of input costs when JAFF’s pruning costs were shown to be more than DOUBLE the other farmers in his group. Since then his strategy has changed slightly and he now starts by running the all-cut through all the orchards. He then goes in with the hand team to focus on keeping the height under 6m and opening up windows by removing large limbs. The first limbs considered for complete removal are the ones impacted most by the all-cut.
“There’s no getting away from pruning each avo tree as an individual,” warns JAFF, “there are simply too many factors to consider to apply a blanket approach across a whole farm. And every tree needs to be pruned every year so it’s just one of those areas we have to invest in.” Since changing his strategy, pruning costs have come down.
Young trees are first pruned at about 3 years old, by removing one limb where necessary.
Hedge pruning
JAFF explains how this tree needs to be managed to encourage more fruit inside the tree where it will be protected from sunburn. He will remove a large limb, right back to the main stem so that the other branches will produce bearing wood in the sun-filled space. It’s a constant juggle between protecting the fruit from sun damage by maximise production space inside the tree and using the sun to increase yield.
Using the all-cut hedge pruner does not work well with this program – that adds a further complication to the juggle! But it does work well to open up for orchard access and to reduce the flower load on the tree. JAFF keeps in mind that, while he definitely sees scope for improvement, he is happy with the production figures.
Although JAFF concedes that this orchard has a number of pruning issues – too dense, needs light into the trees – he is very happy with the anticipated crop, based on the set. He’s also unconcerned, indeed relieved, to see that the trees are also dumping part of their load, naturally – he says this will repeat in November and, for the Fuertes, again in Feb.
JAFF does not do skirting on avos; he is happy with the low, high-producing branches that also help preserve moisture in the soil. When I asked about the damage to the avos that will inevitably be on the ground he said “Those can go to oil. For me, it’s much more important that I keep the environment cool and moist.”
Proof that, post-pruning, branches need ‘sunscreen’. This is sunburn damage – as you can see, the xylem (through which the avos nutrition is moved) is extensively damaged.
PESTS
I say pests and all JAFF sees is thrips. And he blames the macs!
So, how do they deal with them in the avos? When flowering is imminent, daily scouts start (any orchards close to macs are monitored very closely, especially the trees adjacent to these thrips havens). If pressure is low, JAFF’ll use a sulphur spray. Unfortunately, this is ineffective if pressure increases and, if he is forced to spray, it will be targeted on the hotspots only.
Lamb Hass has a unique challenge in that it has flowers and fruit at the same time – this makes thrips control a problem because of the withholding period specified for thrips control chemicals. In the past JAFF picked it in August but now, with the current markets, he’s forced to pick later and that has created the challenge.
JAFF painfully shows me evidence of the extensive thrips damage in the orchards bordering macadamias. JAFF will be replacing all the macs, on this particular farm, with avos and hopes that this will reduce the thrips challenges.
They are trying 3 things for the thrips currently:
- Metarhyzzium spray (They did the first spray the night before our interview)
- Nematodes and mites (started early this season)
- Formetanate (Carbamate) spray (Chemical)
JAFF says, “We’ve done a control block so we will know whether this new approach has worked when we’re packing at the end of this season.” When I followed up JAFF says he can report that the thrips numbers are definitely down as a result of all their efforts.
JAFF also gets a bit of grief from avo bugs. These are small, green insects that suck the small fruit which leaves a pimple/bump. They don’t do anything to control this pest.
Avo bug damage.
Coconut bugs are a type of stink bug. JAFF finds small outbreaks especially if there is a litchi tree or some other delicious tropical fruit in the vicinity. They spot spray where they find them. JAFF explains that the stings are quite easy to identify (see the screen shots below, under HARVESTING) as a sunken hole; when the sting site dries, there is often a white, sugary residue.
FCM (False Coddling Moth) also causes some damage, particularly in the Lamb Hass and Maluma Hass orchards. But JAFF is unconcerned as they are easy to control with pheromones.
Thrips (lines) & cercospera (black spots) damage on one fruit.
DISEASES
Phytophthora is once again the villain in this chapter of the story. Their solution is phosphoric acid stem injections which is administered to infected trees and its 4 neighbours. In addition, JAFF improves soil health by adding mulch and compost around the strugglers. But JAFF says that changes to irrigation have made the biggest difference to the overall prevalence of this disease.
When JAFF looks back, he thinks his irrigation issues started when he began adding compost tea as a supplement; as he would then irrigate at the same time. In hindsight, that was not necessarily the right time to irrigate. He is now adding QCM360 (Quality Controlled Microbes) through the irrigation system.
As on all avo farms, Cercospera is the standard nuisance; JAFF keeps this in check with 3 copper sprays on the Fuertes and 2 sprays on the Hass varieties for anthracnose.
Sick tree being medicated with phosphorous injections.
NUTRITION
In the past JAFF has always done leaf and soil analyses and applied the recommendation for the following year in the form of granular and half-organic fertilisers but, lately, he’s improved on this in 3 ways:
- SAP ANALYSIS. If anyone else out there has wondered how sap (which comes from the leaf) is different from a leaf analysis, you’re not alone. But, I have an answer; leaf analysis involves drying and then burning the leaf and analysing the ash, whereas sap analysis is done on the wet juices; giving a more ‘at the minute’ understanding of what the tree is carrying.
- WELL-TIMED POTASSIUM & NITROGEN. In summer, they always do a nitrogen application which ensures a good leaf flush – JAFF says this translates into a stronger flower. Because there have been good crops lately, JAFF has been supplementing with potassium, when the fruit is on the tree, which has improved fruit size.
- FOLIAR SPRAYS. Mrs JAFF is in the agricultural nutrition business and has been made to prove her worth to the operation. It was all done quite fairly and she was given 2 blocks (one Fuerte, one Hass) and 3 years to deliver results. Smartly, she only used half the 2 blocks so that there was a control for her trials. The programme, designed by her company Agrilibrium, delivered indisputable success (18% better yield on both cultivars), 3 years in a row! The programme cost about R3k per hectare and the increased income translated to R37k per hectare so there was no doubt – JAFF extended the programme across the whole farm. He says that timing is a critical component of the plan which also includes a soil-based application of zinc and boron.
- High fertiliser costs have inspired extensive ‘out the box’ thinking and it is in this context that moringa is being investigated. It’s still in trial stage but is looking promising. JAFF is currently planting it out to extend the trials. The plan is to make a compost tea from this biostimulant initially although moringa holds commercial value as a source of oil and sap which is used medicinally. It is usually just the waste that is used as a compost and it is this that JAFF brought in last year to start trials. We’ll be watching this space!
Almost half a million rand of fertiliser delivered for the guavas and the young macs and macs in sandy soils. Nothing for the avos and nothing for the macs that are in good soils.
When it comes to managing acid sats, JAFF aims for a pH of about 6. For the last few years the soil has been stable but he would use lime to make corrections if required.
JAFF says this tree is obviously unhappy – he tells this by the length of the flower which is much shorter that it’s happier neighbours. It is also carrying too much fruit. The leaves are yellowing, hanging and many of them are closed. He has already injected it, and added additional mulch.
Compare the unhappy tree to this, which is a far healthier specimen with none of the poor health indicators that the previous one had.
Compost/mulch under the young trees.
CROSS POLLINATION
As with many of the avo farmers we’ve interviewed, pollination interventions, far less, cross-pollination, are not highly prioritised by JAFF. Having seen many instances where cross pollination has made a marked difference in macadamias, I am still curious about the phenomenon in avos …
JAFF says that although it is not something ever discussed between the farmers, it is something he is starting to keep an eye on; he has, in the past, planted a row of Fuerte around the perimeter of a Hass orchard, for cross pollination and, every year he’s noticed that these Fuerte perform spectacularly (25 to 32 tonnes per hectare). Is it cross-pollination or is it the fact that they’re the outside row? (we all know that these perform best because of the increased dose of sunlight, circulation and attention) Just to cover all bases, JAFF has planted some Hass into all new Fuerte developments and he says he might check the harvest on the outside rows of the pure Fuerte blocks and use that as a control to assess the difference between those and the Fuerte planted around the Hass. Let us know when you do that please JAFF!
BEES
This year JAFF placed the bees inside the rows rather than on the outside. He’s curious to see if this impacts fruit set on the trees deeper into the orchards. He believes that the bees prefer to follow the row rather than going through the tree, perhaps because they are sunbathing whilst working and that requires them to stay in the row down one side of the tree – keeping this in mind also guides hive placement.
JAFF uses the excess wooden pallets that come out of the packhouse to build hives for the bees and has found significant success in capturing swarms.
Farmers suspect that the bees avoid orchards where Imidacloprid (chloronicotinyl) has been sprayed, even when it wasn’t sprayed while they were there, the bees seem to pick it up and avoid the area. This chemical is widely used to control thrips and stink bugs in macadamias. JAFF suspects this is why he had very few bees in the mac orchards last year. Has not sprayed this year and has placed hives inside the orchards. As a result, the bee activity has increased. The hives will be removed before the spraying starts.
JAFF is propagating lots of indigenous basil (bee food for when the orchards are not in flower) in the nursery and planting it out all around the farm. He actually cuts all the flowers off (prunes Basil bushes back) when the avo trees are in flower so as to ‘keep the competition in check’.
HARVESTING
Harvesting is a happy time on all farms and it’s no different here.
JAFF never harvests wet fruit because the lenticels absorb water. If this wet fruit is touched, the lenticels burst. Whilst the damage is invisible at that moment, it will turn black when it hits the cold room and then the grade drops, reducing income and profitability.
So, on dry days only, the champion picker will go out first and set a benchmark for the day’s orchard/s. The teams are then equipped with clippers, bags and one small lug box. They aim for the day’s target which usually equates to about 30 lug boxes, each carrying about 16 to 17kgs. The following day’s target is then based on today’s results.
They do have picking poles and step ladders but, if the pruners have done their job, the trees are easy to climb says JAFF.
When a picker has a full bag they will bring it to the trailer, dip each avo in fungicide that prevents stem-end rot, and places it in a lug box. The lug box is weighed and tipped into the trailer bin.
PACK HOUSE
This impressive facility also packs guavas.
It services select suppliers and processed 600 000 cartons this year, excluding the bags which were in addition to this. They market their fruit locally, themselves, and the export fruit goes through the Fruit Farm Group.
I learnt something about exports when touring this facility … countries will specify what moisture level fruit can come in at. America has a very ripe requirement (75%). Remember that the lower the moisture, the more ripe the fruit is. Avos are considered ripe at 78%. So, if it is between 75% and 78% it would need to go to Europe where they accept fruit at 78%.
Join me on a walk through this incredible facility …
Bin tipper – this empties the bin, and then places it on top where it is moved to the right and taken out the factory, all automated.
Here the fruit is cleaned. This is a dry factory – no water bathing.
Shiny fruit emerges from the cleaners.
The cleaned fruit is run through the sorter.
The Spectrim sorter was amazing. In this screen, JAFF was showing me what Stinkbug damage looked like – the computer has pulled up 22 examples of stinkbug damage in the current batch and it has enlarged one. There is an operator in attendance of the computer and she ‘teaches’ the machine parameters for the various ‘problems’. The fruit is then graded accordingly.
After grading, the fruit is automatically weighed on the line and sent into the appropriate line for packing.
The packed boxes are palletised and prepared for the cold room.
Temperature consistency and accuracy is enhanced by placing probes into the centre of the pallet (the probes are what are protruding from the ceiling) – this checks that the fruit in the middle is the same temperature as the fruit on the outside. Avos are extremely temperature sensitive and their quality is compromised by inconsistency in this area. It gives management the ability to be able to say “Load everything in cold room 1 except pallet C3, D4 and E5 because they are not yet down to the right temperature.”
The heady fragrance of guavas was heavy in the pack house.
And that concludes our second spin with JAFF 11 … perhaps we will one day return, with a focus on guavas?
If you skimmed past this picture thinking it was just a dry leaf, look again. Yup – now you see it hey! I do the same thing … sometimes our Farmer Interviews are way too short (although I am not sure the JAFFs would agree ) and I miss things on the day, often only picking them up when going back through the recordings. I felt it more acutely after this interview; they’re such a large, wealthy (and here I refer to experience, depth and knowledge) enterprise that I fear I may only have scratched the surface … and that’s after being there TWICE! There’s so much to learn. Thank you to this incredible JAFF. And thank you to our Lord for creating such an incredible place for us to explore.
Until next month, God Bless.